An epic usually begins with an opening statement of theme, followed by an invocation, or appeal for supernatural help in telling the story.

The story begins in medias res (Latin for “in the middle of things”) Readers are plugged right into the action, and then flashbacks and other narrative devices report on earlier events.

An epic has a serious tone and elevated style that reflect the importance of its characters and theme.

Epics often include epic similes, elaborate extended comparisons using like or as. For example, in the Iliad, a twelve –line simile compares Achilles’ pursuit of Hector to a mountain hawk swooping down on a dove.

Epics typically include epithets, or stock descriptive words or phrases. Because these poems were originally composed and recited orally, epithets were a kind of shorthand that allowed the poet to describe a character or an object quickly in terms the audience would recognize. Homeric epithets are compound phrases such as “the grey-eyed goddess Athena,” “Man killing Hector,” and “the wine-dark sea.”